Thursday, December 06, 2012

A nice little rarity tonight for those of you who like your Christmas music with a bit of island flavor, in this case, the Hawaiian Islands. I think it was about two years ago I stumbled onto this record in a thrift store somewhere in Maryland, just outside of DC where I was headed for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. I've gone at least twice now, maybe three times, and each time the festival has been right after the peak bloom. So I've missed it. But I'm thinking of going up this coming year the week before, and maybe then the timing will be right. I could spend weeks wandering around DC, photographing all the major monuments and the little out-of-the-way places that you stumble across when you don't have a specific itinerary. But wait, I'm supposed to be talking about this record. I found this when I stopped at a junk store one morning, and I've been meaning to share it ever since. This is one of those self-produced school records that the kids record and try to sell to their neighbors and grandparents in order to raise money for a trip or to buy new band instruments. I see them all the time, but never from a school in Hawaii. So I thought it was worth a buck, and it's certainly worth sharing with you tonight. So please be my guest and download The Kamehameha Schools With The Hawaii Youth Symphony Orchestra-Kamehameha Sings At Christmas (IMUA Records SYB-2256, -2257, Stereo, 1968). Good stuff!

5 comments:

Thanks Ernie, I live in Hawai'i and Kamehameha Schools are a very big deal out here. Kamehameha Schools is a private college-preparatory school set up by the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, she was a direct descendant of King Kamehameha the Great and the last living member of the House of Kamehameha. She died in 1884 and Kamehameha Schools was established in 1887. The schools' admissions policy prefers applicants with Native Hawaiian ancestry and has excluded all but two non-Hawaiians from attending since 1965. While some people have a problem with that... if you were to see the conditions in which some of the Native Hawaiians live, (when these islands were once theirs) then there would be no problem. Sorry, I was getting up on my soap box. I'm sure this album was recorded to help raise money to help provide scholarships for Kam. Schools. I'm really looking forward to hearing this as music and song are a big part of life on the campus at Kamehameha Schools. Every year the in March, the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest is held, it is an a cappella choral competition between the graduating high school classes of the Kapālama (on Oahu) campus. So I'm sure this was a very well done album.

Thanks for sharing this Ernie. I love reading the backstory both on how you came to acquire this album, as well as the information on Kamehameha Schools that Puffin Randy provided. Interesting stuff! I cannot wait to hear this.

Again, I am glad you have the torrents so I can assist in seeding this for others to enjoy!

I have some requests for a future post:"Merry Christmas To You!" The 3 Suns "A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas!"Earl Grant "Winter Wonderland"Ramsey Lewis "More Sounds Of Christmas"plus remastered versions ofDick Leibert "The Sound Of Christmas At The Radio City Music Hall" &Dick Leibert "The Happy Hits Of Christmas"

Thank you for sharing this. It brought back wonderful memories as I was one of the singers. Unfortunately, my copy of the record was lost when the person who borrowed it moved to the east coast without returning it.